Bionic_Flea

Renowned
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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Beastyle View Post
    Best part of the latest episode: Syrio Forel.
    For real?
  2. Bionic_Flea

    The Hamidon

    I think the choice of HO/four shards/53 merits is fair compensation.

    Although I think that adding 20 threads (the equivalent of a common component) would be very welcome.
  3. Bionic_Flea

    Lambda Posers

    Most of the times I have seen posing, it has been people from the team that completed collecting their 10 items. So they aren't leeching at all, they're just fast.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mercury_Down View Post
    Khledians share the same situation as the PVP side of COX in my opinion. That is, there are not enough people playing Khelds/PVP for the devs to spend resources on fixing issues for the AT or that part of the game. So just like the PVP playerbase, providing suggestions (even some of the well though out, fact supported ones in these forums) for kheldians fall on deaf ears.

    That's my perception, and my reality.
    It must really suck to PvP with a Kheldian then.
  5. Bionic_Flea

    Duo Lambda

    Obviously neither of you participated enough to earn a higher reward!

    Grats! Well done.
  6. Bionic_Flea

    DING! Seven!

    Happy Birthday, City of Heroes/Villains/Rogues!

    Thank you for the many years of fun.

    Now go fix Incarnate trial rewards.
  7. Some buffs are egalitarian. You can put shields on everyone on the team and I generally do so by running down the team list.

    Other buffs with longer recharge can only cover one or a few so you have to prioritize. I want to get the most bang for the buck out of the buff so I'll try to do what others have said: fortitude on blasters, clear mind on squishies, etc. I also buff players I know will make good use of it over others I know won't or I'm unsure.

    But sometimes you realize that your team's blaster can take care of himself but that defender over there is always missing half a health bar. Buffing "the strongest" might be a waste if they are already capped or can function at a high level without your buff.

    Then there are those other players that just can't seem to stay alive even if you buff them to hell and back. It's a waste to buff someone who isn't going to survive as long as the buff. So you can't always just buff the weakest.
  8. I updated my Nvidia drivers to the most recent update and I seem to disconnect less. Time will tell.
  9. Bionic_Flea

    MoLambda baby

    I was there on Phrenic Flea, but I wish I had been there on my badger and namesake.

    Still, it pretty cool. More a matter of patience and determination than anything . . . kinda like dealing with CS.
  10. White Hot Flash:

    All MyLexiconIsHuge is trying to say is that no player, including Arcanaville, should be elevated to dev status, let alone godhood.

    Even Arcanaville, as great and humble-less as she is, agrees.
  11. It's hard for Arcanaville and MyLexiconIsHuge to be both great and humble.

    I should know.
  12. Thank you for the post and for the efforts taking in correcting the current system.

    Hopefully the fix is a good one.
  13. I am disappointed that there has been no update on the rewards issue today on the forums nor in the article. I would expect us not to air our dirty laundry in public (shame on you Venture). But since I did not see any substantive posts from Devs or Community on the issue, I held out hope that something would be mentioned in the article.

    Instead, I get:
    Quote:
    PCG: If you could summarize the average player’s feedback on the patch so far, what would it be?
    NB: “We want more Incarnate Trials!”
    which I find beyond hype. I think it is absolutely false.

    I am terribly disappointed. If you don't want more people "pulling a Venture" I suggest you address this issue here on the forums and stop the heavy handed moderation.
  14. <QR>
    1. Announce that all three powers are being looked at by the powers team.
    2. Put entire team to work on fixing Crook
    3. Next month put entire team to work on fixing Meekling.
    4. Release patch on test with Notes indicating all three have been fixed but we need the players to really test the heck out of them.
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lucenter View Post
    With Issue 19 and 20 however, it's clear that the mindset has moved completely towards building these extremely frustrating and difficult incarnate missions and pretty much ignoring the rest of the game - sure two task forces were added but that is pretty much it in terms of content for this issue - and not everyone likes to team but the lack of solo content since issue 18 is for another thread.

    With the incarnate trials, not only do you exclude people who haven't purchased GR, you exclude the people who haven't run the unlock yet. And even those who have must have it slotted, which excludes even more.

    Then when you jump all those hurdles, you get into these trials and they aren't fun. They are just massive computer kills everything in site trials that require the right set up of a team - and that right there eliminates any casual player who has decided to even travel this far into this extremely complicated system as it is.

    Then you get into the issues of how poorly these were thought out....when I ran the Lambada sector, the league decided to all attack the turrets up top. Which is great and all except for the fact that the developers had the brilliant idea to restrict temp. powers so my super-speeder basically had to twirl his thumbs and do nothing for that part of the strike. I won't even go into how frustrating the rest of the trial was with the constant death and face planting because of how this was set up - a lot of it had to do with the fact that it was new and no one knew what they were doing but even allowing for that type of massacre is part of the gaming style I don't enjoy.


    I've enjoyed the game for its casual play and fun content (solo and team). These last two issues have moved from the casual and fun to the elite hardcore play tests that include grinding at ridiculous levlels to get your character up to par to even compete in these.
    I'm sorry you feel that you have to cancel your subscription, but obviously that is a personal choice only you can make.

    However, I did want to correct some misconceptions before you left. Whether that affects your decision or not only you will know.

    1) Neither the Alpha Slot, nor any other slot or Incarnate power is required to run Lambda and BAF -- the two new trials. Sure, those things make it easier and some doofus on some server might only invite incarnates to his league, but the game does not require it for the trials. It is, however, required to have the Alpha slot unlocked to participate in Apex and Tin Mage and slotted to avoid the -4 level debuff.

    2) I agree with you that speedsters are at a disadvantage against the turrets in the Lambda trial. But if you have the jump pack from the Good vs. Evil Pack ($9.99 from the online store), that is one of the few temp powers that works in the trials, as do beast run and ninja run. Using one of those should get you to the first turret and then you can run along the wall to reach the others.

    I hope you decide to stay, or at least come back soon. If not, have a good one and be careful out there! *Cues Hill Street Blues Theme*

    P.S. Minor nitpick with Arcanaville:

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
    Of course, I'm wondering how you managed to survive the four issue and 17 month gap between Issue 13 and Issue 17 when there was also no solo story arc content added to the game.
    Issue 14 was the Mission Architect, which created the potential for limitless solo arcs.
  16. How many hours of play should it take a player who does not or cannot, for whatever reason, participate in the incarnate trials to open and slot a T1 in one incarnate slot?

    Is 10 hours over 10 days unreasonable?
  17. No doubt that doing the trials is a much quicker way to get IXP and components. My point is that getting the slot opened and slotted in less than two weeks, playing one hour a night, without stepping foot into either trial, is a reasonable alternative method.

    Yes, what I am talking about still requires teaming. But not large scale raid teaming, just the standard teaming that the game has had since day one.

    Now, if you want to do it completely solo, it would probably take 30 to 60 days to get one incarnate power slotted. I still don't find that unreasonable. And if you are shooting for the T4 in every slot . . . well yeah, that's going to take years. But as Arcana pointed out, most of the benefit of these boosts come early. Tier 4 only adds a little bit over tier3.

    I would much rather have several characters with T1 or T2 slotted in everything, than dedicating myself to just one character with T4s. I won't even consider getting multiple characters with full sets of T4. THAT would be unreasonable.
  18. <Quick Reply>

    Sorry that I'm coming into this conversation late. I got about half-way through my first page and then realized I had three more to go and decided I didn't have the time to make it all the way through.

    I remember some time ago that someone (Catwhoorg perhaps) started a thread to find out what level 50s earned on average. And I seem to recall that 3 million inf. per hour was about average. If anyone has more current figures, I'd be happy to be corrected, but I have a feeling that the number would be much larger today. And if I also recall correctly, that was just for killing things, not marketing at all.

    I don't know if anyone has done the same sort of a study for shards. I see on the first page that Arcana, Liquid, and Uber talked a bit about their personal recollections and averages. I wonder if 10 shards an hour would be a fair estimation. I think that it might be if you run TFs and breakdown the component and /or notice.

    Let's assume that it's a realistic number if you run TFs. So you get 10 shards and 3 million inf. for an hour's worth of task force gaming. If you do that, you can convert those 10 shards and 2.5 million inf into 10 threads once a day. You need 60 threads to craft a boost, so that's 6 days and 15 mill. You'll need another 34 threads and 85 million to open the slot (1 thread + 2.5 mill = 3% IXP). So that's another 4 days.

    So, 10 hours of play time over 10 days to earn a little under 100 shards and 100 million inf. without ever setting foot in either of the two new trials. Thirty million of that inf should be sitting there just from the kills. Craft and sell the non-crap drops to make up the balance. You might be a little short or you might get lucky, get a purple and be tremendously over.

    Am I missing something?
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Hydrophidian View Post
    While I don't subscribe to the sentiment that launched this thread, I do understand it, and I recognize that a lot of people share it. Yah, they might be a minority, but I'm willing to bet they're a pretty significant minority. I'd rather not see them shut out.

    Due to the scope and long-term impact of the end game system, I would like to see it be as broadly accessible as possible. While I don't agree that "multi-group content is not the way", I would agree that: multi-group content should not be the only way. Not for a system such as this. Its influence on the rest of the game is too great.
    I agree wholeheartedly.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rsclark View Post
    It is only in the devs hands. I cannot make it more worthwhile, but they can. Currently it isn't even close. That's not a judgment call. It is a simple observable fact. To claim otherwise is delusional.

    "Give me your money or I shoot" is not two options and neither is the current incarnate system. Calling something an option does not make it one. Nor does crossing your fingers and pretending really hard.
    And this I completely disagree with. While obviously only the developers can change the game, whether it is "worthwhile" is entirely subjective, as this thread aptly demonstrates. Some love the new content, some hate it, some tolerate it.

    To compare playing the game in anyway to a literal gun to your head is beyond absurd.
  20. I will grant that Issue 20 was team-heavy content -- two task forces and two multi-team trials. But what have we had right before that?

    Issue 18/Going Rogue was probably the most solo-centric issue ever. You had to choose missions that defined your moral compass. While you could certainly team (except for the last mission) you missed out on a ton of Praetorian content if you did. And the tip missions could be soloed just as easy (if not easier and quicker) than running with a team.

    That was followed by I19, which was delayed in order to add the Ramiel arc and Apex/Tin Mage.

    I understand that some people prefer dinner parties to loud bars, and that Woodstock-like concerts are simply intolerable for them. I happen to like all three in measured doses.

    I was soloing a lot before I19 and I was getting a little burned out on the game. But since I19, I have been almost exclusively running in teams doing trials and TFs, getting tons of merits, shards, threads, and other drops. And I have enjoyed every minute of it. It's the most fun I've had since Issue 6/City of Villains.
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
    Friends are not like underwear. I don't feel the need to change them every day. I don't feel the need to have loads of them. As a point of fact, one is enough for my tastes.
    You only have one pair of underwear? No wonder you don't have many friends on your server!
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by BrandX View Post
    But you can take your time!

    It doesn't have to be rushed!
    This is an excellent and frequently overlooked fact. I know some people have the time and/or the wherewithal to get all the shineys in a couple of days and some people, for whatever reason, don't.

    For those that don't: how long does it take you on average to earn a new power once you get into the 40s? I am guessing that it takes them more than a week. If those same people just run the trials a couple of times over the course of days or weeks, use threads to craft the boost they want, and then use all other Astral Merits and threads to buy XP, then they will get a new incarnate power in about the same time as it takes to gain a power in the 40s.